Boston Sports Then and Now

Boston's top catching prospect progressing in minors. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor from sittingstill.smugmug.com.

I got the pleasure to watch Ryan Lavarnway behind the plate for Pawtucket the past four days in Charlotte, NC against the Chicago White Sox top affiliate, the Charlotte Knights.  The four-game series began on Monday with a game that was suspended in the top of the third inning and resumed on Tuesday in a doubleheader.  The PawSox swept the doubleheader taking games one and two from the Knights to start off the series.  Lavarnway, who just turned 24 years old this past Sunday, played backstop for Pawtucket in games one, three, and four.  From what I saw, I was quite impressed with Lavarnway both as a defensive player and as the PawSox top slugger.

In game one, the suspended game that was continued the following day, Lavarnway put on a pretty incredible show at the plate.  He used the long ball to account for half of the teams RBI on the night.  On day one of the contest, Lavarnway put up the only two runs of the top half of the first inning with a two-run homer off of Knights’ ace Matt Zaleski.  Day two of the matchup, he knocked a solo homer in virtually the exact same spot off of Charlotte reliever Dan Remenowsky.  It was his third multi-HR game with Pawtucket.

In game three, Lavarnway was pretty much flawless as he caught for PawSox starter Brandon Duckworth.   He was able to knock down a couple of pitches in the dirt however made no attempts to throw runners out at second allowing two stolen bases in the game.  Regardless, Lavarnway has incredible arm strength from behind the plate.  He seemed to be on his game and alert, framing pitches for Duckworth and proving again why he was promoted to Triple-A Pawtucket this past June.

Going back to his slugging power, Lavarnway received batter-of-the-week honors July 18-25 hitting .409 (9-22) in six games during that week.  In that span, Lavarnway has three doubles, four homers, and 11 RBI.  He’s batting .328/.410/651 with 15 homers and 46 RBI in 50 International League games and there’s no doubt that the catcher is big league ready.  He now has 29 home runs in the minor leagues this season between AA Portland and AAA Pawtucket with a combined 84 RBI.  This will be his third consecutive minor league campaign in which he has tallied at least 21 homers (2009-2011).

It is obvious that with a little improvement on the defensive side of the game to supplement his outstanding presence at the plate, the catcher is well on his way to Boston.  There is room for him to grow if he continues to experience the success he has seen since being promoted to Pawtucket.  He’s a fun player to watch and a wealth of young talent that Boston tends to have a lot of these days.